Protection of IP RightsWe assist with protecting, enforcing and defending all types of intellectual property rights throughout the world, including patents, trade marks, designs, copyright, domain names and company names.More >>

IP DisputesWe assist our clients on all types of IP disputes, including those relating to ownership, infringement and validity of intellectual property rights.More >>

IP Consultancy Service
We can provide a full range of IP services in-house.
Our consultancy services are offered on a fixed fee basis, with packages tailored to clients' specific requirements.More >>

IP Audits and Reviews
We have wide experience of carrying out IP audits, working with the clients to identify and evaluate early stage technology and advising on the best and most cost-effective ways of protecting any patentable inventions.More >>

IP Education
We can provide on-site, in-house training aimed at client's personnel to whom an understanding of IP and its exploitation is important.More >>

Technology Transfer and Licensing We help clients to identify any intellectual property assets which are not core to their business so may provide an out-licensing opportunity.More >>

Small Business SupportWe endeavour to assist and advise individuals and small businesses grappling with intellectual property issues for the first time.More >>

We assist with protecting, enforcing and defending all types of intellectual property rights throughout the world, including patents, trade marks, designs, copyright, domain names and company names. We deal directly with the UK Intellectual Property Office, the European Patent Office, the Community Trade Marks and Designs Office (OHIM) and the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO).

We deal with all other patent and trade mark offices through our extensive network of associate attorneys in each country and territory throughout the world.

Patents – We handle the full range of technical subject matter, including the increasingly complex areas of biotechnology and electronics.

We advise on all forms of unregistered intellectual property rights including copyright and design rights.

Our "practice areas" pages will provide you with more detailed information on IP rights.

IP Disputes

We assist our clients on all types of IP disputes, including those relating to ownership, infringement and validity of intellectual property rights.

We have extensive experience of negotiating and securing amicable settlement of patent, trade mark, design, copyright and domain name disputes, including drafting coexistence agreements and licences.

IP Consultancy Service

We can provide a full range of IP services in-house.
Our consultancy services are offered on a fixed fee basis, with packages tailored to clients' specific requirements. Consultancy can often be the ideal solution for those clients with larger portfolios who may require a greater degree of control over portfolio management and the IP budget.

Consultancy can be provided on an ongoing regular basis, or to clients requiring temporary assistance with specific projects, such as acquisitions and divestments, etc.

We can also provide cover for maternity leave, sickness, periods of recruitment and sabbaticals amongst the client's in-house staff.

Clients currently using our consultancy services have seen significant cost savings. They have also been able to take advantage of having an IP professional on hand, in order to do the kind of tasks which would generally be given a low priority, for example intra company transfers, records and portfolio audits/reviews.

If you would like to discuss our consultancy services further, please contact Natalie Brindle

We encourage clients to view their records and documentation via the internet, making use of our advanced IT systems and fully secure access. Our clients can therefore quickly and directly obtain all information on their IP rights, including fully transparent details of the costs that have been incurred on each matter.

IP Audits and Reviews

We have wide experience of carrying out IP audits, working with the clients to identify and evaluate early stage technology and advising on the best and most cost-effective ways of protecting any patentable inventions.

Our patent, trade mark and design audits can include a detailed review of existing IP, including checking ownership, providing summaries of critical dates such as renewals, providing a full breakdown/forecast of upcoming IP costs and advice on potential streamlining.

We give strategic advice on the management of client intellectual property portfolios with the aim of supporting the growth of the business by maximising the strength of the portfolio. We review a client's patent, trade mark and design portfolios in relation to its business objectives and competitive environment.

IP education

We can provide on-site, in-house training aimed at client's personnel to whom an understanding of IP and its exploitation is important.

We help clients to identify any intellectual property assets which are not core to their business so may provide an out-licensing opportunity and to identify any IP assets which might be in-licensed to strengthen the client's core portfolio.

We can also help clients to conclude their licence agreements by providing them with licensing support, such as assistance with the construction of deals and in negotiating terms.

Small Business Support

We endeavour to assist and advise individuals and small businesses grappling with intellectual property issues for the first time.

We work with the various agencies, including West Yorkshire Ventures and Manchester Inventors Group, in helping businesses develop and protect their important intellectual creations. We attend some local patent and IP clinics.

By 2015, it was estimated that 84% of the value of the S&P 500 (an index of the 500 largest listed companies in the USA) was constituted by intangible assets. As recently as 40 years ago, though, intangibles had made up a comparatively small 17% of these largest of companies’ assets.

This trend applies not only to large corporates, but cuts across businesses of all stripes. If you run any enterprise in the 21st century, then you own intangible assets. This is true regardless of whether you think of your business or undertaking as particularly innovative or technologically focussed, and is both a symptom and a result of the worldwide shift towards knowledge-based economies.

Intellectual Property vs Intangible Assets
In the discipline of valuation, the term intangible assets is favoured over intellectual property. While “intellectual property” connotes a legal protective framework through which to shield the innovative elements of your business from unlawful imitation and copying – and to be sure, this remains the most widely appreciated and important function of intellectual property – it is also true that intellectual property is an asset class in its own right, independent of any actual or potential infringement, and often the major asset of an enterprise.
Although the terms can be used interchangeably, the distinction between intellectual property and intangible assets is one aptly drawn; the correlation between legal prowess and commercial value is not always a straightforward one, if it exists at all. Simple observation reveals that there are intangible assets of indisputable and enormous value that, appraised as pure legal instruments, provide negligible or weak-at-best enforcement or deterrent power. Trade secrets or reputational rights are two prime examples of this apparent paradox: difficult to protect legally, cumbersome if not impossible to enforce litigiously, yet still vessels of inordinate value for many businesses at the commercial level.

Reasons to have your IP independently valued
The reasons to have your intangible assets independently valued are legion, and the list evolves and grows often, in tandem with the changing nature of commerce itself. Valuation is especially useful in the context of:

avoidance of inefficient taxation consequences of recording substantial parts of a business acquisition as “goodwill” when in fact, an IP valuation might well reveal other, more precisely definable intangibles;

offshore restructuring and IP-ringfencing;

transfer pricing queries;

venture capital and angel investment funding;

substantiation of damages claims in litigation;

compliance with International Accounting Standards (IAS) and International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS);

compliance with ISO standards on brand valuation;

return on investment calculations for marketing and advertising spend;

negotiation of licence and franchise agreements, and substantiation of royalty rates; and

spinning off or ringfencing healthy and robust intangible assets from underlying insolvent businesses.

Intellectual Property Due Diligence
We offer IP due diligence in the context of mergers and acquisitions.